The first petroglyph to be mentioned is found at la Cueva del Islote, on Punta Braba, about 5 leagues east from Arecibo and on the north side of the island of Puerto Rico. The grotto is found in an immense blackish mass of igneous rock, forming a point projecting into the sea, which beats furiously against it; it communicates with the sea at the foot, and the water entering this passage, which is quite narrow, produces a terrific roaring followed soon after by veritable thunder claps. The people of the neighborhood have a superstitious fear of it, and it is only with great difficulty that anyone can be found to accompany one there. The entrance on the land side is toward the east—a yawning crevasse, filled partly with rubbish and partly by the stunted vegetation of the coast. On penetrating to the interior we find, after following a short but wide passage, a pyriform chamber 20 meters in diameter. In the ceiling a very narrow crack admits a ray of light which, reflected in the water of the sea, filling the bottom of the cave, produces a bluish twilight. Notwithstanding this twilight, we are obliged to carry torches to distinguish objects. All around us, but especially over the point where the sea enters in, are to be seen the inscriptions represented here. The incisions are very deep, and the edges are generally dulled by the blows of the hammer; in certain spots, toward the lower part of the grotto, several inscriptions are partially effaced by the action of the sea, but those of the upper part are in a remarkable state of preservation. Beneath certain principal figures of the groups are little circular basin-like depressions cut in the rock with a trench running down toward the bottom.

I will not attempt here to give a formal explanation of these inscriptions, but may we not regard the spot in which they are found as having served for a rendezvous for the ancient Borrinqueños where they performed their sacrifices or the ceremonies of their religion? On the other hand, the appearance of these inscriptions is very peculiar. One of them might be considered a representation of those little figurines and statuettes of stone found in Mexico, in Mixteca, and in the country to the south. In another a head is curiously decorated with a diadem of feathers, and apparently represents one presiding at a feast served in the small circular basin set before him. The most noticeable thing in this group of inscriptions is the frequency of the grinning faces in a circle, often alone, often accompanied by two others placed at the sides, which are universally met with in every inscription found in the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The same may be said of the human figure apparently swaddled in cloths like a very young infant, the head and body more or less decorated, which is also very frequently found.

Following these petroglyphs of Islote, we present a list of others discovered at Puerto Rico, hastily describing them and giving a particular description only of those which are of the greatest interest.

In the above-mentioned grotto of Cueva de los Archillas, near the village of Ciales, we observed the curious figures bearing traces of a crown and peculiar ear ornaments. In la Cueva de los Conejos, some distance from Arecibo, on the road from Utauado, we found a figure partly incised and partly painted in a dark red; it is very artistically fashioned, and represents the famous “guava,” the monster spider of the Greater Antilles, of which the natives have a great dread. It is probable that the ancient Borrinqueños also considered it with a certain awe, and we find images of the same animal in la Cueva del Templo on the coast of Haiti, at Santo Domingo. A solitary rock of a reddish color, in a field of the hacienda of Don Pedro Pavez at la Carolina, a short distance from the Rio Pedras, bears a series of grimacing faces in circles. On a granitic rock of large dimensions, superimposed on a heap of rocks of the same character, in the midst of a grove of Indian trees and at the entrance of the Cano del Indio into Rio la Ceiba, near Fajardo, on the east side, are found three swaddled human figures, the heads decorated with various ornaments. On a black rock in the Rio Arriba, one of the branches of the Rio de la Ceiba, is a petroglyph which presents but little that is of interest.

On the Loma Muñoz, near the Rio Arriba above mentioned, and on the summit of the hill, stands a dark rock with smooth face protected by another mass of rock, forming a sort of shelter on which is an inscription composed of a number of incised grinning faces. At the confluence of the Rio Blanco and the Rio de la Ceiba, in the district of Fajardo, is a series of violent rapids formed by immense rocks of a granitic character, on which are cut a large number of other grimacing faces and also some swaddled figures, and other incisions which are not of interest.

The carvings are on the walls of an “Indian hole,” also called Hartford cave, in the northern shore of a small island in Rum Cay, one of the Bahama group. Rum Cay measures 5 miles from north to south and about 8 or 9 from east to west. It lies 20 miles northwest of Watlings island, the San Salvador of Columbus.

The cave is situated on the seashore about a mile and a half from the western point of the island to the eastward of a bluff, close to which is a “puffing hole,” through which the waves blow when the seas roll in from the north. The cave is semicircular in shape and about 20 yards in depth, and is partially filled with debris of rocks, earth, and sand.

Like all rocks of which the Bahamas are formed, those in Hartford cave are a mixture of coral, detritus, and shell, very rough and full of cracks and indentations, and in this cave, from the constant damp of filtration and spray, the walls were coated with a deposit of lime and salt, so that it would be impossible to say if the carvings had been colored. If ever they had been, any traces of coloring must long have disappeared. Besides the markings copied there were others scattered over the walls of the cave, most of which were circles apparently resembling human faces. Unfortunately, we neglected to measure the carvings, but I should judge the circles or faces to be 10 inches or more across, while others of the figures must have been a foot and a half in length, and the markings must have been nearly half an inch in depth, cut into the face of the rock, and seemed to us such as might have been made with a sharp stone implement. Although we visited numerous caves in the various islands of the Bahamas, in no other did we find any appearance of markings or carvings on the walls, nor could we hear of any reported to have such markings.

The absence of any traces of carvings in other caves whose situation was better adapted for the preservation of markings, had such ever existed, and the proof that their contents afforded that most of those caves had been known to the Lucayans and used by them as burying places or otherwise, and the close proximity of Hartford cave to the sea, taken in connection with the great number of markings on its walls, led me to think that possibly this cave had been the resort of the marauding tribes whom the Lucayans gave Columbus to understand were their enemies, and who were in the habit of making war upon them; and if so, the Caribs, or whatever tribe it may have been, had left these rock markings as mementos of their various expeditions and guides to succeeding ones.

The island of Aruba forms one of the group of the islands of Curaçao, on the north coast of Venezuela. This group consists of three principal islands, Curaçao, Buen Ayre, Aruba, and some isolated rocks. It belongs to Holland.

Aruba is the most western island of the group and is situated opposite the peninsula of Paraguana, on the mainland. The distance between the two is about 10 leagues, and from the island the shores of the continent can be seen very distinctly.

These islands, at the time of the discovery by the Spaniards, were inhabited by an Indian race which has left numerous traces of its occupancy; pottery, stone objects, petroglyphs, etc., are met with in large numbers in Aruba and in a less quantity on Buen Ayre and Curaçao. * * * These petroglyphs are quite different in character from those which I have recently described in a brief study of the Greater and Lesser Antilles, and their appearance brings to mind those found in Orinoco, in Venezuela, in the peninsula of Paraguana, on the border of the Magdalena river, and as far as Chiriqui. They differ from these, however, in several respects, and especially in that they are almost always multi-colored. The colors usually employed are red, blue, a yellowish white, and black. They are, moreover, painted and not cut in the rock. They show the same degree of variance as I have already noticed in North America—in Sonora, Arizona, and Chihuahua—between the petroglyphs which I have designated as Pimos, which are always incised, and those in the mountains which I designated as Comanche, and which are always painted and in many colors. The petroglyphs are, as has already been said, very numerous on the island of Aruba. I have personal knowledge of thirty, but, according to my friend Père van Kolwsjk, there must be more than fifty. The most important groups are as follows:

(1) Avikok. An enormous dark rock forms the summit of a wooded knob, and in this rock are two large cavities, one above the other, on the walls of which are the petroglyphs represented.

(2) Fontein. On the border of a fresh-water lagoon, a short distance from the northeast part of the island, near the sea, is a grotto of coralline origin, whose walls are of remarkable whiteness. This grotto is composed of a principal passage, quite wide, cut off toward the lower end by a row of stalactites and stalagmites, which, joining together, form a curious grimacing figure. On the wall to the left, as we look toward the bottom of the grotto, are found some petroglyphs. They are well preserved, thanks to their situation and the shelter from inclement weather, and they show no indication of painting, being distinctly traced on the walls.

(3) Chiribana. On some granitic spurs of a hill of the same name are found curious petroglyphs.

(4) At Lero de Wajukan, near Avikok, and at the foot of a hill, petroglyphs are found on some blocks of granite. I notice specially the human figure which in the original is outlined in red and bears on the shoulder a hatchet of the Carib type with a haft.

(5) At Ayo I discovered petroglyphs with figures in blue and red.

(6) At Woeboeri inscriptions are found on the wall of an immense mass of granite.

(7) Some petroglyphs on the walls of a grotto at Karasito.

On a hillside on the southern end of the island of Ometepec, Nicaragua, about 1½ miles east of Point San Ramon, are many irregular blocks of basalt with marks and figures cut on them. The hillside faces east, and is about half a mile from the lake. There were similar markings on many of the shore rocks, which, in May, were partially covered with water, notwithstanding that that was about the driest season. These markings were excavated about half an inch in depth and a little more in width. Human faces and spiral lines predominated. There was also a crown, a representation of a monkey, and many irregular figures.

Santa Lucia is a village in the Republic of Guatemala, in the Department of Esquintla, near the base of the Volcano del Fuego, at the commencement of the inclined plane which extends from the mountain range to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. * * *

The sculptured slabs are in the vicinity of the village. The greater number of them form an extended heap, rendering it probable that there are others hidden from view that more extended researches would reveal. * * * All the sculptures, with the exception of three statues, are in low relief, nearly all being in cavo-relievo, that is, surrounded by a raised border, the height of which indicates the elevation of the relief. The same kind of relief was practiced by the ancient Assyrians and Egyptians.

In seven instances the sculpture represents a person adoring a deity of a different theological conception in each case. One of these seems to represent the sun, another the moon, while in the remaining five it is impossible to define their character. All these deities are represented by a human figure, of which only the head, arms, and breast are correctly portrayed, proving that the religious conceptions had risen to anthropomorphism, while the idols of the nations of Central America and Mexico, which have previously come to our knowledge, are represented by disfigured human forms or grotesque images.

Four of the other sculptures represent allegorical subjects; two of them the myth of the griffin, the bird of the sun.

The slabs on which the low reliefs are sculptured are of various sizes; the greater number of these, like those representing the deities, are 12 feet in length, 3 feet in width, and 2 feet in thickness. Nine feet of the upper part of these stones are occupied by the sculptures, while the lower 3 feet appear to have served as a base.

In the interior of South America, between the second and fourth degrees of north latitude, a forest-covered plain is inclosed by four rivers, the Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassiquiare. In this district are found rocks of granite and of syenite, covered with colossal symbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, and drawings of household utensils, and of the sun and moon. The tribes nearest to its boundaries are wandering naked savages, in the lowest stages of human existence, and far removed from any thoughts of carving hieroglyphics on rocks. One may trace in South America an entire zone, extending through more than 8° of longitude, of rocks so ornamented, viz, from the Rupuniri, Essequibo, and the mountains of Pacaraima, to the banks of the Orinoco and of the Yupura. These carvings may belong to very different epochs, for Sir Robert Schomburgk even found on the Rio Negro representations of a Spanish galiot, which must have been of a later date than the beginning of the sixteenth century; and this in a wilderness where the natives were probably as rude then as at the present time. Some miles from Encaramada there rises in the middle of the savannah the rock Tepu-Mereme, or painted rock. It shows several figures of animals and symbolical outlines which resemble much those observed by us at some distance above Encaramada, near Caycara. Rocks thus marked are found between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo and, what is particularly remarkable, 560 geographical miles farther to the east, in the solitudes of Parime. Nicholas Hortsmann found on the banks of the Rupunuri, at the spot where the river winding between the Macarana mountains forms several small cascades, and before arriving at the district immediately surrounding lake Amucu, “rocks covered with figures,” or, as he says in Portuguese, “de varias letras.” We were shown at the rock of Culimacari, on the banks of the Cassiquiare, signs which were called characters, arranged in lines, but they were only ill-shaped figures of heavenly bodies, boa-serpents, and the utensils employed in preparing manioc meal. I have never found among these painted rocks (piedras pintadas) any symmetrical arrangement or any regular even-spaced characters. I am therefore disposed to think that the word “letras,” in Hortsmann’s journal, must not be taken in the strictest sense.

Schomburgk saw and described other petroglyphs on the banks of the Essequibo, near the cascade of Warraputa. Neither promises nor threats could prevail on the Indians to give a single blow with a hammer to these rocks, the venerable monuments of the superior mental cultivation of their predecessors. They regard them as the work of the Great Spirit, and the different tribes whom we met with, though living at a great distance, were nevertheless acquainted with them. Terror was painted on the faces of my Indian companions, who appeared to expect every moment that the fire of heaven would fall on my head. I saw clearly that my endeavors to detach a portion of the rock would be fruitless, and I contented myself with bringing away a complete drawing of these memorials. Even the veneration everywhere testified by the Indians of the present day for these rude sculptures of their predecessors show that they have no idea of the execution of similar works. There is another circumstance which should be mentioned. Between Encaramada and Caycara, on the banks of the Orinoco, a number of these hieroglyphical figures are sculptured on the face of precipices at a height which could now be reached only by means of extraordinarily high scaffolding. If one asks the natives how these figures have been cut, they answer, laughing, as if it were a fact of which none but a white man could be ignorant, that “in the days of the great waters their fathers went in canoes at that height.”

Pictured rocks.—Our accounts of these objects are very meager. The only one definitely described is the “piedra pintal.” A few of the figures engraved upon it are given by Seemann, from whom the following paragraph is quoted:

“At Caldera, a few leagues (north) from the town of David, lies a granite block known to the country people as the piedra pintal or painted stone. It is 15 feet high, nearly 50 feet in circumference, and flat on the top. Every part, especially the eastern side, is covered with figures. One represents a radiant sun; it is followed by a series of heads, all with some variations, scorpions, and fantastic figures. The top and the other side have signs of a circular and oval form, crossed by lines. The sculpture is ascribed to the Dorachos (or Dorasques), but to what purpose the stone was applied no historical account or tradition reveals.”

These inscriptions are irregularly placed and much scattered. They are thought to have been originally nearly an inch deep, but in places are almost effaced by weathering, thus giving a suggestion of great antiquity. Tracings of these figures made recently by Mr. A. L. Pinart show decided differences in detail, and Mr. McNiel gives still another transcription.

The pictured rocks of Guiana are not all of one kind. In all cases various figures are rudely depicted on larger or smaller surfaces of rocks. Sometimes these figures are painted, though such cases are few and of but little moment; more generally they are graven on the rock, and these alone are of great importance. Rock sculptures may, again, be distinguished into two kinds, differing in the depth of incision, the apparent mode of execution, and, most important of all, the character of the figures represented.

Painted rocks in British Guiana are mentioned by Mr. C. Barrington Brown. He says that in coming down past Amailah fall, on the Cooriebrong river, he passed “a large white sandstone rock ornamented with figures in red paint.” * * * Mr. Wallace, in his account of his Travels on the Amazons, mentions the occurrence of similar drawings in more than one place near the Amazons. * * *

The engraved rocks must be of some antiquity; that is to say, they must certainly date from a time before the influence of Europeans was much felt in Guiana. As has already been said, the engravings are of two kinds and are probably the work of two different people; nor is there even any reason to suppose that the two kinds were produced at one and the same time.

These two kinds of engravings may, for the sake of convenience, be distinguished as “deep” and “shallow,” respectively, according as the figures are deeply cut into the rock or are merely scratched on the surface. The former vary from one-eighth to one-half of an inch, or even more, in depth; the latter are of quite inconsiderable depth. This difference probably corresponds with a difference in the means by which they were produced. The deep engravings seem cut into the rock with an edged tool, probably of stone; the shallow figures were apparently formed by long continued friction with stones and moist sand. The two kinds seem never to occur in the same place or even near to each other; in fact, a distinct line may almost be drawn between the districts in which the deep and shallow kinds occur, respectively; the deep form occurs at several spots on the Mazeruni, Essequibo, Ireng, Cotinga, Potaro, and Berbice rivers. The shallow form has as yet only been reported from the Corentyn river and its tributaries, where, however, examples occur in considerable abundance. But the two kinds differ not only in the depth of incision, in the apparent mode of their production, and in the place of their occurrence, but also—and this is the chief difference between the two—in the figures represented.

The shallow engravings seem always to occur on comparatively large and more or less smooth surfaces of rock, and rarely, if ever, as the deep figures, on detached blocks of rock, piled one on the other. The shallow figures, too, are generally much larger, always combinations of straight or curved lines in figures much more elaborate than those in the deep engravings; and these shallow pictures always represent not animals, but greater or less variations of the figure which has been described. Lastly, though I am not certain that much significance can be attributed to this, all the examples that I have seen face more or less accurately eastward.

The deep engravings, on the other hand, consist not of a single figure but of a greater or less number of rude drawings. * * * These depict the human form, monkeys, snakes, and other animals, and also very simple combinations of two or three straight or curved lines in a pattern, and occasionally more elaborate combinations. The individual figures are small, averaging from 12 to 18 inches in height, but a considerable number are generally represented in a group.

Some of the best examples of this latter kind are at Warrapoota cataracts, about six days’ journey up the Essequibo.

* * * The commonest figures at Warrapoota are figures of men or perhaps sometimes monkeys. These are very simple and generally consist of one straight line, representing the trunk, crossed by two straight lines at right angles to the body line; one about two-thirds of the distance from the top, represents the two arms as far as the elbows, where upward lines represent the lower part of the arms; the other, which is at the lower end, represent the two legs as far as the knees, from which point downward lines represent the lower part of the legs. A round dot, or a small circle, at the top of the trunk line, forms the head; and there are a few radiating lines where the fingers, a few more where the toes, should be. Occasionally the trunk line is produced downwards as if to represent a long tail. Perhaps the tailless figures represent men, the tailed monkeys. In a few cases the trunk, instead of being indicated by one straight line, is formed by two curved lines, representing the rounded outlines of the body; and the body thus formed is bisected by a row of dots, almost invariably nine in number, which seem to represent vertebræ.

Most of the other figures at Warrapoota are very simple combinations of two, three, or four straight lines similar to the so-called “Greek meander pattern,” which is of such widespread occurrence. Combinations of curved and simple spiral lines also frequently occur. Many of these combinations closely resemble the figures which the Indians of the present day paint on their faces and naked bodies.

Every time a sculptured rock or striking mountain or stone is seen, Indians avert the ill will of the spirits of such places by rubbing red peppers (Capsicum) each in his or her own eyes. * * * Though the old practitioners inflict this self-torture with the utmost stoicism, I have again and again seen that otherwise rare sight of Indians children, and even young men, sobbing under the infliction. Yet the ceremony was never omitted. Sometimes, when by a rare chance no member of the party had had the forethought to provide peppers, lime juice was used as a substitute; and once, when neither peppers nor limes were at hand, a piece of blue indigo-dyed cloth was carefully soaked, and the dye was then rubbed into the eyes.

It may be as well briefly to sum up the few facts that can be said, with any probability, of these rock pictures in Guiana. The engravings are of two kinds, which may or may not have had different authors and different intention. They were still produced after the first arrival of Europeans, as is shown by the sculptured ship. They were, therefore, probably made by the ancestors of the Indians now in the country; for, from the writings of Raleigh and other early explorers, as well as from the statements of early colonists, it is to be gathered that the present tribes were already in Guiana at the time of the first arrival of Europeans, though not perhaps in the same relative positions as at present. The art of stone-working being destroyed by the arrival of Europeans, the practice of rock-engraving ceased. Possibly the customary figures were for a time painted instead of engraved; but this degenerated habit was also soon relinquished. As to the intention of the figures, that they had some seems certain, but what kind this was is not clear. Finally, these figures really seem to indicate some very slight connection with Mexican civilization.

These writings or markings are visible at a greater or less distance in proportion to the depth of the furrows. In some instances they are distinctly visible upon the rocks on the banks of the river at a distance of 100 yards; in others they are so faint that they can only be seen in certain lights by reflected rays from their polished surfaces. They occur upon greenstone, granite, quartz-porphyry, gneiss, and jasperous sandstone, both in a vertical and horizontal position, at various elevations above the water. Sometimes they can only be seen during the dry season when the rivers are low, as in several instances on the Berbice and Cassikytyn rivers. In one instance, on the Corentyn river, the markings on the rock are so much above the level of the river when at its greatest height, that they could only have been made by erecting a staging against the face of the rock, unless the river was at the time much above its usual level. The widths of the furrows vary from half an inch to 1 inch, while the depth never exceeds one-fourth of an inch. * * * The furrows present the same weather-stained aspect as the rocks upon which they are cut. * * *

The Indians of Guiana know nothing about the picture-writing by tradition. They scout the idea of their having been made by the hand of man, and ascribe them to the handiwork of the Makunaima, their great spirit. * * *

As these figures were evidently cut with great care and at much labor by a former race of men, I conclude that they were made for some great purpose, probably a religious one, as some of the figures give indications of phallic worship.

These drawings, cut in the stone to a depth of half an inch, mostly represent snakes and other animal forms, human heads and spiral lines, and differ from those which I afterward saw in Guiana, on the Essequibo and Rupununi, in characters and forms, but their execution, like that of the latter, is rude. Though greatly weathered by the influence of rain and the atmosphere, the figures can still be perfectly distinguished and gigantic patience, such as none but Indians possess, was surely needed to carve them in the hard granite mass by means of a stone.

A tradition, the legend of the rock of Tepumereme, has been preserved by Father Gili. Some old writers, adhering to the Tamanak acceptation of the word, say indifferently tepumeremes or rocas pintadas (painted rocks). Usage has converted Tepumereme into a proper noun. At the present day it is applied exclusively to the rock situated some leagues from Encaramada, in the midst of the savanna, this rock having been the Mount Ararat of the Tamanaks.

Supposing that it is authentic, this legend, which we will relate further on [see page 33, supra], yields no information that might aid us in interpreting hieroglyphs, and so we are reduced to describing its principal characters.

Not all our pictographs correspond to the region of the Raudals, but in our ignorance of the peoples who carved them we see no harm in bringing them together so long as they all come from the banks of the Orinoco, and so long as the localities where they exist are indicated. The copies which we give of them have been very carefully made and reduced to one-tenth.

The first thing that strikes one on looking at them is that, despite differences in detail, the design presents a general common character. In fact, there is question not of figures with undecided forms, but with sure lines perfectly traced and combined in one and the same style. They are geometric designs rather than objective representations. The illustration [Fig. 108] came from a rock in the vicinity of Caïcara, a town situated on the right bank of the Orinoco, close to its last great bend. It represents three jaguars, one large and two small, the former being separated from the latter by an ornamented sun placed at the level of their feet. The spotting of their hides is rendered by means of angular lines arranged in so regular a manner that one might take them to be tigers did he not know that these felines never existed in these regions. The jaguars differ in insignificant details which, however, must have a purpose, in view of the general regularity. The largest shows six radiating lines on the muzzle and a circle in one of the ears. The second shows two hooks on the lower part of the body. The third is preceded by an isolated head, which is unfinished, without ears, inclined differently from the others. Some differences are also noted in the limbs.

Placed in the attitude of marching, these animals seem to descend from a height and to follow the same direction. Perhaps there is question here of a mnemonic whole, and, we might add, of a totem, if we knew that that system had been employed by the Indians of the region.

This interesting collection includes the most varied ideographs.

Alongside of representations analogous to the preceding there appear new characters and partial groupings which we had not yet found. On running over them one passes successively from simple points to figures made up of tangled lines, to objective representations, and even to letters of the alphabet, a resemblance which, of course, is fortuitous.

The first group begins by three points similar to those in Fig. 19 [of Marcano, occurring in Fig. 1105 in this paper], followed by two circles with central dots, and terminates below in a plexus of broken lines. The second group, placed at the right, is composed of regular figures of great variety. Among them we note the two lowest, one of which resembles a K and the other a reversed A. A spiral, two circles, one of which has two appendices, and a figure in broken lines make up the third group. Below is seen a coiled serpent. Its head is characteristic; it is found in other pre-Columbian carvings of the Orinoco. As regards design e, we will merely call attention to the sign analogous to the E of our alphabet. It is found at times in the United States of America. [For this remark the author refers to the ideograph for pain, in Figs. 824 and 872, infra.]

Design f is an animal difficult to characterize; its head and tail may be guessed at. The body is covered with ornaments and the legs, very incomplete, are in the attitude of running. Design g represents probably a tree with an appendix of undulating lines; design h, a head surmounted by a complicated headgear. This is the first distinctly human representation that we have found in the country. The strange combinations of designs j, k, and l exhibit the dots at the end of the lines which we have already spoken of. Design m resembles an M; design n shows a circle with plane face.

Thus we see that the statements of some travelers concerning mysterious hieroglyphic combinations are far from being realized. As regards the exaggerations of Humboldt, they arise from the fact that he did not content himself with describing what he had seen. This is illustrated by the following sentence: “There is even seen on a grassy plain near Uruana an isolated granite rock on which, according to the account of trustworthy people, there are seen at a height of 80 feet deeply carved images which appear arranged in rows and represent the sun, the moon, and different species of animals, especially crocodiles and boas.” Elsewhere he speaks of kitchen and household utensils and of a number of objects which he can only have seen with the eyes of his imagination.

The rock inscriptions were visited in August, 1865. Several similar inscriptions are said to exist in the interior of the province of Ceará, as well as in the provinces of Pernambuco and Piauhy, especially in the Sertaōs, that is, in the thinly-wooded parts of the interior, but no mention is ever made of their having been seen near the coast.

In the margin and bed only of the river are the rocks inscribed. On the margin they extend in some instances to 15 or 20 yards. Except in the rainy season the stream is dry. The rock is a silicious schist of excessively hard and flinty texture. The marks have the appearance of having been made with a blunt, heavy tool, such as might be made with an almost worn-out mason’s hammer. The situation is about midway between Serra Grande or Ibiapaba and Serra Merioca, about 70 miles from the coast and 40 west of the town Sobral. The native population attribute all the “Letreiros” (inscriptions), as they do everything else of which they have no information, to the Dutch, as records of hidden wealth. The Dutch, however, only occupied the country for a few years in the early part of the seventeenth century. Along the coast numerous forts, the works of the Dutch, still remain; but there are no authentic records of their ever having established themselves in the interior of the country, and less probability still of their amusing themselves with inscribing puzzling hieroglyphics, which must have been a work of time, on the rocks of the far interior, for the admiration of wandering Indians.

I found a “written rock” covered with spiral lines and concentric rings, evenly carved in the black gneiss-like material, and similar to those of the Caldeirão. Looking about for more, I discovered a perfect inscription, whose straight orderly lines can hardly be thought the result of lazy Indians’ “hours of idleness.” These characters were incised on a very hard smooth block 3 feet 4 inches in length, and 3¼ feet in height and breadth. It lay at an angle of 45°, only 8 feet above low water, and close to the water’s edge of the second smaller rapid, the Cachoeira do Ribeirão. The transverse section of the characters is not very deep, and their surface is as worn as that of the inscription farther down. In some places they are almost effaced by time and are to be seen distinctly only with a favorable light. A dark brown coat of glaze, found everywhere on the surface of the stones, laved at times by the water, covers the block so uniformly well on the concave glyphs as on the parts untouched by instrument, that many ages must have elapsed since some patient Indian spent long hours in cutting them out with his quartz chisel. As the lines of the inscription run almost perfectly horizontally, and as the figures near the Caldeirão and the Cachoeira and the Cachoeira das Lages are so little above low-water mark, the present position of the block seems to have been the original one. * * * On the rocky shores of the Araguaya, that huge tributary of the Tocantino, there are similar rude outlines of animals near a rapid called Martirios, from the first Portuguese explorers fancying they recognized the instruments of the Passion in the clumsy representation.